Chapter 24: Return to Fox River
Alex and Jack walked down one of the many hallways of Fox River Penitentiary with one of the prison's nurses.
"I know Sara didn't have many friends," said Alex.
"No," replied the nurse, "She was sort of a loner."
"But you were her friend?" prompted Jack.
The nurse shrugged, "I like to think so, yes."
"But you have no idea where she is now?" asked Alex.
"No."
Alex opened up the file he was carrying.
"This is the transcript of the Scofield/Burrows tape. I highlighted the parts where he talks directly to Sarah. Mean anything to you?"
The nurse glanced through the papers.
"No."
"You have no idea where she could be meeting him?" asked Jack.
"No."
"Is Brad Bellick still here in the infirmary?" asked Alex.
"Yeah…why?"
"We need to speak with him."
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"You must be loving this," said a rather beat-up Bellick.
"We didn't drive all this way to gloat," said Alex.
"Well then what did you come here for?" demanded Bellick.
"First, I've really got to tip my cap to you. You've managed to draw a beat on the convicts more often than any of my staff."
"Thanks for the that-a-boy, but as you can see the correctional system doesn't share your gratitude."
"We won't take much of your time, Mr. Bellick," said Jack, "But we do have a few questions."
"About?"
"Sarah Tancredi," replied Jack, "She listed you as a reference on her job application to work here. You know her well?"
"I'd know her a lot better if you could get me to ad-seg."
Alex laughed, "We have no influence with the DOC, you know that."
"You want my help you do," retorted Bellick, stubbornly.
"I'll talk to the warden," said Alex, "I'll see what I can do. But right after you start giving me some answers."
He tossed Bellick the file.
"Scofield likes to communicate with Tancredi through coded messages," said Jack, "Anything there you recognize?"
"No," replied Bellick, "He's saying he's sorry. Not that that's going to do anything with Doctor Cold Shoulder...but…"
"What?" asked Alex.
"Ad-seg," demanded Bellick.
Alex sighed, "Yeah, sure."
"Alright, see here?" asked Bellick as he pointed at some lines, "Where it says this stuff about another chance and safe haven? That's out of the big book."
"What big book?" asked Jack.
"Alcoholics Anonymous. Sarah was in recovery."
"Yeah, we're aware of that," said Alex, "What else you got?"
"Well, those are some of the titles of the chapters in the big book."
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Alex and Jack requested a copy of the "big book" from the nurse. She was happy to oblige. They took it into an empty hallway and began to thumb through the pages.
"So," said Jack, "What in the world was Michael trying to get across to Sarah?"
"The last thing he mentioned was 'Every Doctor's Nightmare'," replied Alex as he flipped over to the chapter.
They scanned down the pages and came to the name of a hospital: St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio.
"He also said that he'd thought of many ways to apologize, but he must arrive at one," muttered Alex.
"Arrive at one?" said Jack, "As in one o'clock maybe?"
"Yeah…maybe."
Jack glanced down at her watch.
"Alex…it's ten till."
Alex shot her a look and grabbed his cell phone. He turned and began to walk quickly down the hallway, Jack on his heels.
"Sarah Tancredi might be with him right now," said Alex into the phone, "Just call the local police in Akron and tell them to get everyone they have over to St. Thomas Hospital now!"
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